Summer of Sam
Buena Vista Pictures | Release Date: July 2, 1999 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
67
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 26 Critic Reviews
Positive:
18
Mixed:
8
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
This is a terrific movie: jolting, savage, horrifically funny, nightmarishly exciting but also brainy and compassionate. Read full review
91
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
Lee's control and storytelling flair have never seemed more assured and there are moments so powerful and thrilling we feel we're in the hands of a master filmmaker at the peak of his powers. Read full review
90
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
Lee at his best, a virtuoso piece of filmmaking that's stylish, substantial, and rich in detail. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Lee has a wealth of material here, and the film tumbles through it with exuberance. Read full review
80
SalonSarah Vowell
An urban epic, a noisy, swirling, flawed, hilarious, witty, tender, violent, questionable train wreck. Read full review
80
Film ThreatRon Wells
Lee gives us cross-section of characters, almost none of whom escape the summer unchanged. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
It is a dark, violent, sexually explicit motion picture that will surely offend timid viewers. Read full review
75
San Francisco ExaminerWesley Morris
One of Lee's unsung gifts as a filmmaker is his discovery of that place between eye-popping surrealism and wrenching Greek tragedy. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
The most refreshing thing about Summer of Sam is that it doesn't try to impose a moral or define the limits of its story. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Like most of Lee’s work, this movie bites off a lot more than it can possibly chew, and it bristles with the worst kind of New York provincialism. Read full review
70
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
A tabloid slice of tabloid life, ragged, vivid, awkward and punchy all at once. Read full review
70
VarietyTodd McCarthy
Summer of Sam is never less than absorbing but feels just a bit like yesterday's news, both narratively and cinematically. Read full review
70
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
A film in which many things seem to happen twice and others not at all. Read full review
70
The New York TimesJanet Maslin
This film, like the dazzling but many-tentacled "He Got Game" before it, makes up in fury much of what it lacks in form. Read full review
70
L.A. WeeklyElla Taylor
Brilliant, goofy, vindictive, incoherent and compassionate, Summer of Sam begins as a work of startling ambition, spins out of control, and finally limps to a bland halt. Read full review
70
NewsweekDavid Ansen
A thick stew of sex, violence and suspicion, Lee's movie -- spiked up with a virtually nonstop soundtrack -- definitely has the power to jangle your nerves. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
An intelligent, viscerally kinetic throw-down, a jolt of pure adrenalized Spike that holds more than a few touches of genius in its overripe storyline. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
It's a kaleidoscope of ideas that range from exciting to silly and gaudy. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
A glum and unpleasant experience, caught between what it wants to do and how it has chosen to do it. Read full review
60
The New YorkerDavid Denby
Slamming different kinds of experience together, Lee tries to do with montage what he cannot do with dramatic logic. Read full review
60
Washington PostRita Kempley
Hobbled by a multiplicity of narrative lines and superfluous, often stereotypical characters, the movie suffers from a lack of both focus and passion. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter Rainer
It's all been done before, and better. Read full review
60
SlateDavid Edelstein
Spike Lee is a virtuoso filmmaker, a wizard at selling a sequence, but he'll never make an entirely coherent movie until he learns to go deeper into his subjects instead of wider with them. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Spike Lee noisily attempts to place the hunt for real-life serial killer David Berkowitz at the center of a hotheaded sociological fantasy linking disco glitz, punk rebellion, ethnic insularity, sexual craving, and sizzling heat into one rattling chain of urban hysteria. Read full review
50
Dallas ObserverBill Gallo
The cast has plenty of room to emote, but their task feels a bit empty and thankless. For the most part, they're carrying the director's water. Read full review
50
Washington PostDesson Thomson
If there's any moral to this sorry story, perhaps Lee's stealth-message is it: Even when it's not about race, it is. Read full review
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